Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Connecting

by Reb Gutman Locks of the Old City, Jerusalem, Israel at Mystical Paths

This week’s portion of the Torah is called Tzav. Tzav means “to command.” Tzav is closely related to the word tzvat, which means “to join.” From this comes a well known teaching that by doing a mitzvah, you join or connect to God. Although this teaching is certainly well intended, it is not stated correctly and sadly, it misleads people into making a serious mistake.

If one would think that he must do something to connect to God, he would have to believe that he was, at that moment, disconnected from God. In order to disconnect from something you need three things: the object you want to connect, the object you want to connect to, and the object that is standing in between these two, preventing them from presently being connected. This can never be the case with God.

God is infinite. There can never be any disconnection from the infinite. By definition, the infinite is without limits or boundaries. So where could someone be that he is disconnected from the infinite?

Use “the All” as an example.

Where is the All? Everywhere. “Everywhere” means literally filling every inch of every place. Also, all things have to be included in the All.

How many Alls are there? There can be only one All or what we were calling All could not have been All.

Is there anything other than the All? No. If there was anything other than the All, then what we were calling All could not have really been the All because by definition, the All must include All.

Can anything be disconnected from the All? Obviously not, or the All would not have been everywhere.

So what are they trying to say when they say that a mitzvah connects you to God?

When you do someone’s will, you align yourself to his will. It plugs you into his thinking. When you do what that person wants, you become his agent. An agent is like the hand of the one who sends him. When you do what the principal wants, you gain his goodwill and blessings, and learn about his nature, and he smiles upon you. You become filled with his thoughts. When you do what someone smarter than you says to do you act smarter than you were acting before.

By doing God’s will, you will certainly get all of these benefits, but you will not connect to Him because you were never disconnected from Him.

If you were not doing what He wants, you were blind to, or ignoring, His Presence. But you were never separated or disconnected from the Infinite, not even for an instant.